Cuban migrants swim, wade last yards to U.S.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Three Cuban migrants leaped from a raft and swam and trod water for several hours before reaching the Florida Keys Tuesday, avoiding being picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Live television showed the three reaching a shoreline of mangrove trees by a luxury residential complex near Key Largo, south of Miami, treading gingerly over rocks and raising their hands in triumph.

A fourth man on the raft had earlier been taken aboard one of several Coast Guard vessels that were on the scene to try to intercept the men and stop them from reaching the shore.

Under U.S. policy on illegal migrants from communist Cuba, migrants who make it to shore are generally allowed to stay in the country, but those who are intercepted at sea are usually sent home. The three Cubans were likely to be taken into custody but later released into the community.

The so-called wet-foot/dry-foot policy periodically leads to drama off the Florida coast as migrants try to evade the Coast Guard and make it to shore.

On Tuesday, although the Coast Guard could have moved more forcefully to stop the men, a spokesman said safety had been the first consideration. "Any time we have a person in water we use minimal amount of force and that's for their safety and ours," said Petty Officer Ryan Doss.

The migrants were spotted by a Coast Guard patrol plane and a vessel was sent out to intercept them, Doss said. But when it got near the raft, the occupants threatened the Coast Guard crew with oars, he said. The Guardsmen responded with pepper spray, at which point the migrants dropped their oars and leaped into the ocean, Doss said.